The Impossible Possibilities
by Goddess Athena In Disguise
Summary: Thalia is confused, about her feelings for Nico, her love of being a hunter, and her longing for the life she never had... full summary inside. Flames are for roasting marshmallows. COMPLETE


**Hey guys! First fanfic ever. I think it's good, but we'll only know when you review, right?**

**_Summary_: Thalia is confused. Confused over her mixed feelings for a certain son of Hades. Confused over her priorities as a hunter. Confused about her brother Jason whom she hasn't seen in years, and whom she is suddenly having dreams about. And now, confused about why Nico di Angelo is standing outside the door to cabin 8, sporting a sheepish smile and something behind his back... What happens when the confusion becomes too much for her?**

**-Goddess Athena In Disguise**

**Disclaimer:  
>Me: Do I own you, Percy?<br>Percy: No way, you stupid fanfiction writer!  
><strong>**Me: *glumly* Thanks for your support. **

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><p>Thalia was sitting alone in cabin eight, cleaning her weapons. The hunters had come to camp half blood to help them defeat a drakon that could only be slayed by a person who has the blessing of Artemis i.e. a hunter of Artemis. They had decided to stay at camp for a few days to rest and, for Thalia at least, to spend time with her friends.<p>

But there was no one available at the moment. The other huntresses were either practicing archery or dueling in the sword arena. Percy was out, rescuing some lost demigod, and Annabeth was very busy designing Olympus, so Thalia had nothing to do for the time being. She wasn't good friends with anyone else.

These days, a certain son of Hades had been on her mind recently. They had met briefly in the sword arena, where he had been practicing with Percy. Both of them were pretty good too. Nico was now almost 16, around Thalia's age. He had a mop of unruly black hair, which at the moment was dripping in sweat and kept falling in his eyes. Although he was wearing a loose t-shirt, it didn't hide his lean, muscular form and well developed abs. He thrust, parried, and dodged with the ease of a skilled swordsman. At one point, they were both exhausted, and took a break. That was when Nico took off his shirt. He had the body of an athlete – well toned but not too skinny. She had stared for a couple moments as he cooled down, but then went to Artemis' cabin, where she knew they were waiting for her. The image of Nico and his abs stayed in her mind though.

She shook her head to get the image out of her mind. Physical attraction was not the only aspect that she liked. Nico turned out to be pretty caring about, well, everything. He stood up for a new camper who was being bullied by some Ares kids. He even helped a young satyr play the right tune to make the strawberries grow faster. This kid was seeming better day by day. Maybe he wasn't such a brother after all…

But she was a _hunter_ for Zeus' sake, and the lieutenant at that. She even liked being pure forever; love was for losers. But now, she was starting to think it over. Her thoughts led her to memories of her life before she ran away and met Luke. She sighed as a memory of Jason as a toddler crossed her mind, him asking, "Thalia, where's mommy?" She had hugged him and said, "I don't know, Jason. I don't know." He had cried himself to sleep in Thalia's arms that night. No one had seen him since he was four, but Thalia had a feeling he wasn't dead, that he was out there somewhere. She would know if he died, even if she wasn't a daughter of Hades. He was her brother, on both the mortal and godly side. That had to count for something.

Then when she was 12, Thalia had run away, unable to stand her alcohol-addicted mother anymore. She was on the run alone for a few months, and then she had met Luke. They had become instant friends, after a little suspicion on each other's part. But from then on, they were a family. And then they had found Annabeth, when she was only seven. Thalia had taken an immediate liking to the little girl; they had all run away for the same reason: parent trouble. Then Grover had been sent to escort them to camp. Unfortunately, a bunch of monsters decided to tag along. Thalia had made her last stand on half blood hill. But a few years ago, she had been released by the magic of the fleece. Since then, a lot of things had happened. Luke had turned evil, Thalia had become a hunter of Artemis, Pan had faded, and Percy had taken on the curse of Achilles, along with many more things that she didn't want to think about. It all ended relatively OK, because Percy defeated Kronos, but Luke died. It's complicated.

Thalia's bittersweet musings were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"May I come in?" a shy Nico asked.

Thalia looked at him. For a second he thought that she was going to shout at him to go away or pulverize him, but she just shook her head sadly. "Artemis would turn you into a jackalope. I think your cabin's a better idea, for whatever it is for which you need me." Nico nodded in agreement, and they went to the Hades cabin.

Once inside, Nico made her close her eyes, and then he brought out a quiver full of arrows. "You can open them now," he said softly. Thalia looked at the arrows and gasped with delight. There were arrows with tips of celestial bronze, arrows with a boxing glove for a tip, and arrows that exploded into paint (mixed with celestial bronze powder). There were at least 20 of each type. They were just like the arrows that the Party Ponies had…

"Nico, are these for me?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, Thalia, I made them for your pine tree so that it can defend camp," he said sarcastically. "Of course they're for you! Happy birthday Thals!" he added in a gentler tone.

"Don't call me that, Niccy," Thalia said, although she was smiling, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Hey, watch who you're calling-"

He was cut off when Thalia suddenly threw her arms around him. She hugged him tight, laughing and crying at the same time. Nico was taken aback. Wasn't she supposed to be a hunter? But then he felt his shirt get a little wet. Thalia, the rough and tough hunter, was crying; no, she was sobbing heartbrokenly. He slowly put his arms around her, and rocked her back and forth gently until she calmed down.

They stayed like that for ages; it could've been three minutes or three hours. When Thalia had finally stopped shaking, she looked up at Nico. He had been staring at her, and smiled and rubbed her back reassuringly. He didn't know why, but he bent down to kiss her cheek and slightly caress it with his lips. "Whatever it is, you don't need to tell me," he murmured in her ear in an impossibly soft voice. "But if you ever need to talk to anyone, know that I'm there for you, ok?"

She nodded, and was going to say something when the dinner conch sounded. She jumped a little and pulled away from Nico, mumbling something about having to go and change. He watched the girl that he had fallen in love with walk back to her cabin with infinite grace. He had fallen for her ever since he had seen her at Westover Hall. She was just so cool that you couldn't help it.

He had since then spied on the hunters a few times, and each time, Thalia never failed to amaze him. Her cropped black hair and electric blue eyes gave her an exotic beauty that no one would be able to understand. Her punk clothes and attitude were not what defined her; they showed what she was, and she wasn't ashamed of it. The grace with which she ran, the ease with which she hit all bulls-eyes in target practice, even the way she looked when got angry, was perfection itself to him. But she was a hunter, and he was a son of Hades, who probably wouldn't have gotten her even if she weren't a hunter. He sighed, wondering why for him, life was a series of impossible hurdles, especially when it came to love. But he had to go for dinner, or else his stomach would kill him, as he had not eaten anything for the past 2 days.

Little did he know that in cabin 8, a certain Thalia Grace was wondering that if she and Nico were just good friends, why did her stomach flip at the sight of him, and why did her heartbeat increase just at the mention of his name? She wasn't sure why she had broken down the way she did in his cabin; perhaps it was because of the memories of Jason, or thinking of 'the good old times' with Luke and Annabeth, or even the fact that he had remembered her birthday and had gotten her the arrows she had been admiring when the Party Ponies showed up. (How did he know about that, anyway?)She'd been recently very confused, and Thalia Grace is never confused. But she had been doing a fair amount of thinking in her free time at camp, and she wondered if there was some other refuge for half-bloods than camp half blood. It would explain why she felt that Jason was alive. What it didn't explain was why Thalia froze whenever Nico looked her in the eye. But her stomach was growling, and so she went to have dinner. Hunter or not, there was only a certain amount of time she could go without food, and having not eaten at all for the past 3 days, she was starving. The prospect of seeing Nico there made her stomach do a few cartwheels she could've done without.

As they both walked out of their cabins at the same time, heads lowered deep in thought, they collided with each other. Thalia looked angry until she saw that it was Nico, and then her face reflected… Sadness? Disappointment? He couldn't quite place the emotion. She said, "I need to talk to you, after the campfire." He nodded solemnly. "My cabin?" he asked. She nodded her assent and they both headed for dinner, each wondering what was going through the other's mind but neither bold enough to ask.

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><p>After the campfire, Thalia made some excuse and slipped away to Nico's cabin with him unnoticed. She went in and sat down on his bed. He sat next to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulder. When she didn't protest, he hugged her and didn't change that position.<p>

The words just came tumbling out on their own. "No one knows about this, so don't tell or else I'll make sure that you can't," she threatened. Nico half smiled at this characteristic threat, and told her to go on. "Well… you see, I have a brother. His name is Jason. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if he weren't my mother and father's son. We're not half siblings, Nico."

Nico couldn't help but gasp. "You mean to say that your dad fell for your mom twice?" Thalia nodded miserably. "That explains why Hera hates you so much. Your mom must've been very beautiful for that, right?" Again, Thalia nodded. "She was a movie star, but also an alcoholic…" "Was?" Nico asked gently. She nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I'm so sorry," he said, holding her tight against his chest. "Don't be," she whispered back. "She abandoned us, me and Jason. But he was just so cute, and he was my brother. The… the night she left, Jason wasn't able to sleep. He came into my room and asked, 'Thalia, where's Mommy?'" She choked back a sob. "I had to tell him I didn't know, and then he asked me when she was coming back." Thalia paused to wipe the tears that were cascading down her cheeks. "I had to tell him that… that I didn't know that either. He spent the rest of the night crying in my arms. He was about three and a half then."

"A few months after that, Jason disappeared. No one had any idea where he was. I suspected Hera of doing something, but I didn't know where she took him, and whether he's safe now or not. But I do know he's alive. I can feel it. He's my brother on both the mortal and godly side. I'd know if he was dead. I would."

At this point she couldn't go on anymore. She started sobbing; harsh, nerve-wracking sobs that shook her whole body. Nico held her tight and rocked her back and forth, but this time it didn't help. Thalia kept on crying really hard. Nico couldn't bear to see her like this. He could probably sense if this Jason was alive, and if he was, then where he was.

"Thalia," he said. She looked up at him, looking beautiful even when teary-eyed. "I think I can help. I can sense whether he's alive or not, and I'll try to sense where he is. I promise I'll do my best to find your brother." _Anything that makes you happy,_ he added silently.

"Really?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "You'll look for my Jason?"

He flinched inwardly at the words _my Jason_, trying to remind himself that he was her brother. "Yes," he said. "I will. But there is a slight problem," he said. Thalia looked ready to burst into tears again. He continued, "I'm in love with a hunter who can't, and won't ever love me back," he whispered softly, looking at the ground.

Thalia gasped. Could he be talking about her? She said anyway, "And I'm in love with a son of Hades who probably will never love me back."

He was overjoyed, and kissed Thalia's lips gently, applying almost no force at all. It was a soft, sweet, lingering kiss that expressed bottomless love and desire. He pulled away slightly and looked at her. She had her eyes closed, but when he broke the kiss she opened them, and her electric blue eyes were brimming with love… love for him.

He kissed her again, and this time it wasn't such a light kiss. She kissed him back with equal fervor; one of her hands around his neck and the other was gripping his hair. He had one arm around her waist to keep her from falling on the bed with him on top of her, and the other was running its fingers through her soft hair. Never had anything felt so right, yet so wrong, not even when Luke had kissed her once; that had felt completely, sinfully wrong. Their lips moved in a synchronized fashion, and when he ran his tongue over her lips, she gladly parted them. Their tongues moved in an age-old dance, exploring the other's mouth. _He tastes like peppermint and marshmallows_, Thalia mused. _She tastes like chocolate chip cookies and milk_, Nico thought. They parted only when the need for air became too great. They stared at each other, breathing heavily.

A wave of ecstasy and guilt passed over Thalia. She was overjoyed that they had kissed, but she was a hunter. What would happen if or when Artemis found out? She couldn't bear the thought of what she would do, but she couldn't bear leaving Nico either. She said nothing and snuggled up close to him. He put am arm around her and kissed the top of her head. They both fell asleep after a few more kisses, Nico cradling her protectively.

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><p>Thalia woke up before dawn when she felt that the warmth of Nico's arms around her was missing. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her. She smiled sleepily, "Morning." He answered with a kiss, and hugged her to him, as if he never wanted to let go.<p>

"What are we going to do?" She voiced the question that was running through both their minds. He sighed deeply, and said, "I don't know, Thalia. What would you like to do?"

She felt sad. What she was going to say would break his heart, but she had to say it anyway. "Nico, I want to stay a hunter," she said. His face fell. She added hastily, "But that doesn't mean that I don't love you, Nico. But if I went to Artemis, she would ever forgive me and would probably turn you into a jackalope. But always remember: I love you, Nico."

And she kissed him one last time, and then looked at his face as if she was trying to memorize it. She sighed, and left. He watched her leave, replaying those words over and over in his head: _But always remember, I love you, Nico._ First Bianca, now Thalia: The only two people he had actually loved, whether in a brotherly or other way, had left him, all for this stupid hunt. He sighed and went back inside his cabin, thinking, _Girls. Who understands them? They twist you around their little finger, and when they've got the guy, they break your heart. Give me a pack of hellhounds any day._

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><p><strong>So how was it? Good? Bad? WRITE MORE! Or NEVER WRITE THIS AGAIN! If you review, I'll give you... virtual cookies! Who doesn't love them? (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)<strong>

**-Goddess Athena In Disguise**


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